Inside This Family’s 7-Year Voyage Around the World Aboard a 146-Foot Explorer Yacht

At age 14, Tom Schröder had no idea that his passion for sailing would lead him to an ocean odyssey spanning the globe. Yet three decades later, Schröder, his wife, Jeannine, and their four sons are at the beginning of a seven-year voyage aboard their 146-foot explorer Maverick. “I’d sold my business in 2019 and then Covid hit,” says Schröder, a venture capitalist based near Cologne. Homebound for a year, the tight quarters brought the family closer. “It worked out so well, we had the idea for this world cruise,” he says. 

The ambitious itinerary includes Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, with voyages into some of the world’s loneliest waters through the Arctic Circle, Antarctica, Cape Horn, and Northwest Passage. The first nine weeks in the Red Sea were essentially a shakedown for Maverick, the first of Italy-based yacht builder CDM‘s Flexplorer 146 series. The vessel’s appeal included its robust steel hull and open rear deck, which accommodates a 33-foot custom tender, myriad toys, and a dive center. The ability to customize provided the opportunity to accommodate their youngest son, 11-year-old Fil, who has Down syndrome. “We made the interior as family-friendly as possible,” says Schröder, noting that he and his wife share the owner’s deck—which includes their bedroom, a room for Fil—serving as a bedroom and classroom—with private terraces fore and aft. Their other sons—19-year-old Pit, 22-year-old Ben, and 25-year-old Tim (and his partner)—have staterooms on the main and lower decks. 

The open-plan interior also facilitates interaction between the family and crew of seven, plus a teacher and speech therapist. “It’s not the usual owner-crew relationship,” explains Schröder. “We do lots of things together. Right now, here in Gibraltar, my oldest son is making lunch with the chef.” 

All on board bonded during their visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where the Schröders explored the pyramids outside Cairo, experienced a private cruise up the Nile, and stayed at Shebara Island, the futuristic new resort that forms part of the Red Sea Project, a massive development backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. “We were one of five yachts [in the region],” says Schröder. They also drove across the desert to AlUla, one of the trip’s highlights so far. “It is a beautiful, ancient desert city surrounded by mountains,” he says. “It was historically unbelievable, modern architecture blending with the old buildings.” As for their overall time in Saudi Arabia, the family was moved by the “wonderful, welcoming, respectful people,” according to Schröder. 

Besides recreation, the daily regimen includes plenty of structure, with Fil blossoming under a combination of tutoring and fun. “We’re very happy,” says Schröder. “It’s worked out very well with him.” With Maverick’s satellite links, Tim can continue his work as a digital programmer, while Tom spends several hours each day on video calls tending to his business interests. 

Summer promises more educational escapades, with stops in Scandinavia and then north into the Arctic, exploring Spitsbergen, Iceland, and Greenland, before Maverick heads south along the East Coast of the U.S. to the Bahamas for the winter. The itinerary remains flexible to avoid any geopolitical hot spots. (The yacht did not venture into Houthi-controlled waters of the Red Sea, for instance.) 

But this isn’t just a case of open-ended wanderlust. The Schröders will spend the first 24 months of the journey aboard Maverick, and then Tom, Jeannine, and Fil will alternate every six months between their home in Germany and the yacht as the older sons transition further into adulthood. That segment will last another 30 months, finishing in the Galápagos. The final chapter of the seaborne saga remains largely unscripted, though Schröder expects it will end after cruising the Indian Ocean, rounding Africa, and heading back to the Mediterranean where it began—proof that there’s no place like home, even for a family enthralled by the spirit of adventure 

Seas the Day

The commitment of ownership isn’t a prerequisite for must-do yachting adventures, as one family of eight discovered on a recent Antarctic cruise aboard the 254-foot explorer Legend. “They had amazing sunsets and incredible landscapes, but the whales were the highlight,” says Rob McCallum, cofounder of EYOS Expeditions, an outfitter specializing in exclusive off-the-grid charters. “They had one magic afternoon where a super-inquisitive minke would not leave them alone,” he adds. “It would swim along with them and actually come up vertically, right beside the kayak.” McCallum typically asks clients to compile a wish list—“hot, cold, or temperate [zones], submersible, helicopter, wildlife, skiing”—that helps to determine the destination and the vessel. A posse of high-school buddies—now in their 40s—and their spouses opted for a heli-skiing trip to Greenland. Two choppers flew each morning to the summits of snow-covered slopes, where the group carved tracks in virgin powder as they descended toward a dramatic Arctic seascape. “The beautiful thing about a yacht is that it’s a little cocoon of luxury on a frozen ocean,” says McCallum, noting these ski trips have been a way for the friends to remain extremely close. “They did Alaska last year, and I believe they’re going to the Antarctic next.” 

A family of four ventured to the remote, seemingly untouched Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific aboard the 208-foot expedition yacht SuRi. Visiting Mbulo, a volcanic island, they dove by submersible to study the lava tubes deep beneath the surface, as well as Guadalcanal Reef, which is littered with wrecks from World War II. The submersible is used “to not only enrich the diving experience,” notes Kevin O’Conor, head of yachts at Cookson Adventures, “but also to map the seabed with cutting-edge sonar equipment,” thus bolstering local conservation efforts. The eight days also included scuba diving among manta rays at Laumuan Island, snorkeling above reef sharks off Mary Island, and visiting local villages. 

“It’s fun when you see an iceberg rolling over, or a whale feeding, or a bear with a kill, and the client will turn to you and say, ‘We are so blessed,’” says McCallum. “It means they haven’t taken it for granted.” But then it’s hard to be blasé when the experience will leave a lifelong impression. 

Credit: robbreport.com